USF freshman Mack leading rusher in opening week

By foxsports
Published

Let's get the first edition of Stat Watch off to a running start. Six Football Bowl Subdivision players rushed for more than 200 yards in the opening week of the season.

South Florida freshman Marlon Mack led the pack with 275 yards and four touchdowns. Playing in place of injured starter Darius Tice, Mack had 176 yards and three TDs in the second half as the Bulls held off the Championship Subdivision's Western Carolina to win 36-31 Saturday.

The Bulls hope Mack can perk up a rushing game that ranked 120th nationally last season at just under 90 yards a game. Mack's total in the opener broke the American Athletic Conference record, tied the school record and represented 25 percent of USF's run production last season.

The nation's other 200-yard rushers were Indiana's Tevin Coleman (247 yards vs. Indiana State), UTEP's Aaron Jones (237 vs. New Mexico), Air Force's Jacobi Owens (233 vs. Nicholls State), Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah (232 vs. Florida Atlantic) and Tulane's Sherman Badie (215 vs. Tulsa).

A look at some of the other notable statistical performances:

LONGEST RUN: Tulane's Badie broke the longest run in the FBS, going 90 yards for a touchdown in a loss to Tulsa. Badie also had a 73-yard run on a drive that resulted in no points.

HILLTOPPERS ROLLING: Brandon Doughty came out of the weekend as the nation's top passer after shredding 2013 MAC champion Bowling Green's defense. The senior's 46 completions, 569 yards and six touchdowns were school records. The Hilltoppers also scored their most points in their six FBS seasons in the 59-31 win.

PICKING UP THE PACE: Even without Jordan Lynch, Northern Illinois' spread offense is still moving at a fast clip. The Huskies used three quarterbacks while getting off a school-record 109 plays in a 55-3 win over FCS Presbyterian.

More impressive, Southern California ran a Pac 12-record 105 offensive plays in a 52-13 win over defending Mountain West Conference champion Fresno State.

The NCAA record for plays in a game is 115, held by three teams.

WORN-OUT LEG? Southern Mississippi's Tyler Sarrazin needed to rest his punting leg after the workout he got in a 49-0 loss to Mississippi State. Sarrazin punted 11 times on the Golden Eagles' 16 full possessions. The school record for punts is 13 against Mississippi in 1966.

MIGHT AS WELL GO FOR IT: Duke went for it on fourth down six times against FCS Elon, and five times the Blue Devils made a first down. Oklahoma went 4 for 4 on fourth downs against Louisiana Tech.

PITT WON'T STOP: Pittsburgh came away with a touchdown each of the nine times it marched inside Delaware's 20-yard line in a 62-0 win. The Panthers' margin of victory was their largest in an opener since a 67-0 throttling of Ohio Northern in 1913 and their largest in any game since a 76-0 rout of Temple in 1977.